After the bare minimum effort of searching I haven't found any geeklists about point salad games so I'm going to go ahead and assume that no other human beings have had this highly original list idea.

If you don't know what "point salad" is it refers to the relatively recent school of design in which there are such a wide variety of ways to get points that it actually becomes difficult to take actions without getting some amount of points as compensation. These games are often derided as being "unfocused" but I like to see them as "open-ended" and would like to get more of them (hence looking for a geeklist on the topic in the first place).

What point salad doesn't refer to are games that provide a variety of ways to get points but are otherwise very focused. Carcassonne is not point salad since all of the different types of scoring fall under the same general idea. Similarly Egizia isn't really point salad even though it has roughly five ways to score since three of those ways are variations on "spend resources to build things for points," the fourth thing is endgame scoring as a result of one of the ways to build and the fifth thing (moving down the food track) is minor enough to not come into play very often.

Please add your own entries to the list since I am likely to run out quickly. Also feel free to add games that you do not think are point salad games as long as you point out that they are not and explain why you think they might be an interesting topic of discussion here. Arguing over whether or not a game is point salad or whether or not point salad is delicious is encouraged.

Feld is often touted as the king of point salad (at least by the kind of people that would say things like that) and since the only other game of his I've played is the very-not-point-salad masterpiece Macao this will have to serve as a decent example.

You get points from:- Completing board regions (calculated both from size of region and how earlier in the game you finished it)- Finishing all of the board regions of a type.- Placing animal tiles.- Placing certain knowledge tiles.- Shipping goods.- The standard endgame "X for Y money, X for Y unused whatevers, etc" compensation points.

The only action you can take which does not directly accomplish or work towards one of these point sources is taking tiles from the main board and putting them in your little queue, and since that fills up quickly the vast majority of actions will serve to improve your score in some way.

I haven't played many 4X games but I'd imagine this is probably a typical design decision for all of them that are not just light wargames in disguise since you need to encourage a variety of activities.

In this one you get points for:- Exploring tiles.- Controlling tiles.- Fighting battles.- Engaging in diplomacy.- Specializing in research.- Building Monoliths.

It is difficult to find an action that does not check off at least one item on that list.

Now, I'm not dead set on arguing this one, especially since it is a lighter game and light games tend to not have a lot which doesn't feed into the main objective. Still, this seems like a dead ringer for point salad even after taking that into account.

Here's the thing, I don't actually want to call this one a point salad. The reason is that although you get points for a variety of things you also get penalized for not having that same variety of things, and given the tightness of the game it feels less like "here, have points for doing literally anything" and more like "hey, you better accomplish all of these things at least once or else." Still, you judge it for yourself. It does look suspiciously like point salad, I'll admit.

You get points for:- Plowing fields- Gathering crops- Having animals- Fencing in pastures- Upgrading your house- Filling empty spaces and fencing in stables (identical in practice for the latter)- Procreation- Certain major and minor improvements

I initially posted this as a classic example, but when I got to thinking about it, there aren't as many ways to get points during the game as I thought; there's not even a score track, since all the points are tallied at end game.

I still think it fits, though, because the myriad choices when it comes to actions give you things that indirectly or eventually get you points.

Things you can do on your turn:Pick up manuscripts (points)Visit cities to experience events (knowledge and money)Gain the influence of other people (influence/money/knowledge/points)Join the clergy (points)Trade with the orient (money)Study the Riddle of Verona (points)Study in the Salterio (knowledge)Work a shop (money)Study the Canticle of the Sun (points)Read at the Papal Library (points)Be a messenger? I forget the theme of that row (knowledge)Or just rest (turn order)

And there's still plenty more to the game that doesn't directly result from actions.

In all, there are seventeen spots for your action discs to go, and they're pretty much all open to you on your turn.

Vlaada Chvatil's games are a bit weird in that regard: The gameplay itself is very engaging, but once you try to determine the winner ...

Galaxy Trucker gives you points for:

- Being first when the round ends- having goods in your galactical truck- having the fewest unconnected tends on your ship- exploring space stations- sending your guys away with an abandoned ship- defeating some kinds of enemies- probably some stuff I've forgotten

However, while you're playing, you're thinking more about the stuff you do, not about optimization of points in the end.

This strikes me as being the opposite of Agricola, it doesn't really seem that point salad-y on paper but in practice it fits.

You get points for:- Placing Citizens, Nobles, Jesters and Priests- Building houses- Building churches- Finishing a certain wall section- Having resources

Since the methods behind these things are so similar it hardly sounds like a point salad game but when you're playing it boils down to "roll the dice, try to get points somehow" which lends it the standard point salad feeling of aimlessly accomplishing concrete goals.

Board games rule my life, and my wife's. That is a good thing, believe it or not ;)

- Points for building specific things on your turn.- Having specific buildings at the end of the turn.- Collecting tiles after building cities.- Race specific ways (e.g. Halflings get points for terraforming).- For the position of your priests on the temple/elemental tracks, some over the course of the game and always at the end of the game.- Having the largest connected set of dwellings at the end of the game.

I am pretty sure I missed a few, but this is a game that is all about VP conversion.

Trading goods in the marketSending a meeple travellingVisiting specific citiesKeeping meeples alive in high ranks in the city hall and churchHaving the most meeples in the church each roundKeeping coins until the end of the gameTurning coins into VPs directlyMeeples who die early enough

There are cards in the expansion that:

Give you points for playing themIncrease the above scoresGive you points for hoarding cubes or goods or grainGive you points for living meeplesGive you points for being behind on the score track

Feld and bugundy are already mentioned, but no game, in my opinion, is more of a blatant point salad than this. Many of the salad bar mini games are such that you just plain take points. It borders on the ridiculous.

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? (James 2:15-16)

Great-Grand-Daddy of point salads? Anyone care to comment? I know nothing of craps, except what I've seen in the movies. Looks like lots of ways to win (and lose).

Anything (edit: almost anything) you do gives either points directly or improves the point generating ability of your village. A lot of options to chose from, and the hard decision is when to stop using them each round.

You get points from action spaces, fighting events and accomplishing the secret goals which reward basically anything you do (except that some of them are not in play, so some things will not be rewarded, but you are not sure which). I think the Ladies expansion brings even more ways to score, but I have never played it and I am not sure if I remember that correctly.

To me this feels the most like "point salad" out of any game that I've played, because on your turn you pick where you want to go to do a variety of different things (buy souvenirs, eat food, look at vistas, pray at temples), but all they are are slightly different ways to score points. Every single thing you do directly gives you points, except when you get gold. But you need gold to score points sometimes.

You get points for yellow, orange, blue .. basically everything you do scores you an amount of points. However, you have to score points in every colour, since your final score will be your lowest score in one colour.

lots of points options here, with end game scoring, end of round scoring, flood scoring and immediate scoring. Also you score revenue (camels), which you can later use to score points

- placing huts score 1 or 2 points, or gets you camels, depending where placed. - Wells earn different points, depending on which reign it was placed - Each Ziggurat tile earns ongoing points per round - 3 different dignitaries get you both VPs and influence points. - Influence points granted by dignitaries rank the players, and points from expansion cards are given out in ranking order - You can offer camels to the gods, points are camels multiplied by ziggurat sites (not to be confused with ziggurat tiles!) - end of game points for a plow card - end of game points for leftover camels

Granted - I happen to think there is a fair amount of interaction in this one despite being a VPS euro with individual player zones. The whiskey/chieftan/special card scoring is all based on players relative assets, so it has an area majority scoring element that the VPS-aspects fo the game are funneled through, which is a nice twist. Plus the market and turn order dynamics create a lot of room for interaction.

Finally got this the other day. Only two plays in so far and while this isn't really a point salad game it seems worth mentioning because it has a similar feel.

You get points from:- Playing victory point cards- Taking VP tokens off of action spaces- Claiming VP action spaces- Buying PhDs (only in the endgame)

On most turns it seems like you will have at least one VP card that you can play for points and the VP spaces are always available to get a few more, but the really important part is that second item on the list. Unclaimed actions accumulate VP tokens (Puerto Rico style) and you take the entire pile when you take that action. The idea is that less desirable actions become more desirable (and it does work that way, especially when you finally take that dusty +1 coin space for 4-5 tokens with a Garden Party in hand, but I digress...) but all of the actions are generally quite good and there just aren't enough workers to go around, so often there will be spaces you would have liked to have used anyway that get left with a token or two on them. Since each token is usually just worth 1 VP this naturally leads to the "take an action and get a point, take an action and get a point, take an action and get two points, etc" scoring style essential to a good point salad.

So it's an interesting case in that there isn't a lot of "variety" in the ways you can get points but you are scoring points essentially every round and you usually score them in very small increments. What do you think?